Ig (Daniel Radcliffe) is not just a nightmare for autocorrect (we’re sure you mean… ‘If’), but a popular local dj in a small sleepy town.
Having grown up in the town it is a surprise to all, not least of all Ig himself, when his longstanding girlfriend is found dead and bloodied in the woods.
Everyone thinks it is the work of Ig, and while he protests his innocence, Ig himself has no recollections of that fateful night. But when no one actually knows, how can you be certain?
Well the locals seem pretty sure, and when honest to goodness horns sprout from Ig’s forehead the next morning, it seems obvious that something is up.
As the horns continue to stubbornly grow Ig finds old friends and complete strangers lose all inhibitions and any semblance of a guarded nature around him. Dark secrets and formerly hidden agendas are suddenly volunteered, not many of them find Ig in a favourable light. But while this is all as disconcerting as the prospect of large protrusions emerging from one’s hairline, Ig soldiers on regardless town the truth.
As you might expect Horns is dark and disconcerting, coming across as a script Guillermo Del Toro might have rejected. Del Toro would undoubtedly have done more with these first ninety minutes though, which are ultimately nothing more than well meaning but misguided effort.
For a long time though while it spins its wheels Horns is at least interesting and different, before it succumbs to its own destiny and moves into territory beyond dark and into blackness. It’s one thing to be a dark fantasy, another entirely to decide that rape needs to be a chapter in this fairy tale.
Daniel Radcliffe continues building, building. No longer the wide eyed innocent, Ig – like Harry – is a young man tired of being ‘nice’ all the time. Horns will prove a minor blip on Radcliffe’s CV, but it will likely prove to many that this nice young man has more tools in his Swiss Army knife than most will give him credit for.
Final Rating – 6 / 10. A dark fairy tale that grows too ‘real’ to remain forgivable.
